It sounds like AICN isn’t much longer for the world, and it will be weird when it’s gone.

I think it was on the skids regardless. A year or so back someone showed the traffic and it was very poor. Even comics sites like Newsarama and CBR had 2-4 times the hits. It’s a site that never really moved on from where it started.

It sounds like AICN isn’t much longer for the world, and it will be weird when it’s gone.

I think it was on the skids regardless. A year or so back someone showed the traffic and it was very poor. Even comics sites like Newsarama and CBR had 2-4 times the hits. It’s a site that never really moved on from where it started.

That was the best thing about it! It’s probably the only site on the internet that looks the same now as it did in 2001 (and earlier).

In a design sense that’s true, but in terms of its approach to news and reporting I think AICN suffered from becoming more ‘legitimate’ over the years.

In the early days they would do genuinely disruptive things like reporting on screenplays that were in the works, obtaining copies of movies ahead of release, or pushing grassroots campaigns on various subjects, and they showed the industry that online movie sites could be quite important in terms of influencing audiences.

But in recent years they’ve moved towards a much more conventional, approved form of movie reporting (in exchange for things like set visits and interviews), and lost something of what made them unique and relevant in those early days.

The most exposure I’ve had with it has been when it was passingly referenced in shows like Entourage and The Cleveland Show.

Believe it or not, AICN used to have some of the best comics reviews on the internet. Back in the early 2000s, I looked forward to reading the @$$holes every week. Between them and the guys at the Fourth Rail, comics criticism was great back then, which made the hobby even more fun during the medium’s modern-day peak.